352 
ATTENTION was directed in NATURE for April 3 to a memoir 
by Prof. Yoshiwara on the geology of the Japanese islands which 
form the ‘* Riukiu Curve.” We have since received a report 
on the fossils of these islands and of Formosa, by Mr. R. B. 
Newton and Mr. R. Holland (orn. Coll. Science, Tokyo, 
Japan, vol. xvii. 1902). The specimens comprise many examples 
of Orbitoides and other foraminifera, together with one or two 
species of Cellepora and one nullipore. They occur in the 
Orbitoidal-limestone of Miocene age, and in the raised coral-reef 
formations which belong to some part of the post-Pliocene 
series. 
A SECOND and enlarged edition o: the ‘‘Hand-List of 
Herbaceous Plants” cultivated in the Royal Botanic Gardens at 
Kew has been issued. In the preface it is pointed ovt that 
no substitute for the ‘‘ Students’ Garden ” —the site of which was 
required for the new wing of the herbarium—is contemplated, 
more especially since the Botanic Gardens at Chelsea have been 
reconstituted under the auspices of the Charity Commissioners 
to serve a similar purpose. A new feature in this edition is 
a reference to works in which figures of the species may be 
found. 
OF the various subjects reviewed by Mr. J. H. Maiden in his 
presidential address to the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 
the forestry question and a botanical survey of the country are 
topics on which the opinion expressed is that of an indefatigable 
worker and a practical expert. In connection with the State 
management of forests, Mr. Maiden directs attention to the im- 
portance of conserving areas which are not suited to agriculture, 
and to the necessity for planting trees to check the sand-drifts 
and to provide shade on the arid western plains. The object of 
the botanical survey would be to summarise existing records 
and extend them. In order to institute a survey which shall be 
carried on by independent workers, the delimitation of the 
country into areas, whether known as domaznes or. counties, is 
essential ; otherwise a definite basis for concerted action is 
wanting. A tentative scheme of botanical counties is outlined 
in a chart which accompanies the paper. 
WE have received two papers dealing with insects harmful to 
agriculture, horticulture, &c., the one, by Mr. G. H. Carpenter, 
on injurious insects observed in Ireland in 1901 (Zconomze Pro- 
ceedings of the Royal Dublin Society, vol. i. part 3, No. 5), 
the other by Signor A. Berlese, entitled ‘‘ Importanza nella 
Economia Agraria degli Insetti Endofagi,” published in 
Bolletino No. 4 of the Royal College of Agriculture of Portici, 
Sicily. In the former Mr. Carpenter states that entomologists 
appear to have paid scarcely any attention to the maggots of 
flies which infest the bodies of live sheep, and he has therefore 
considered it advisable to describe in some detail the life-history 
of the sheep-fly (Zacz/ia sertcata). It is somewhat remarkable 
that this infestation seems to be mainly confined to Great 
Britain and Ireland, having been recognised on the continent 
only in France and Holland; in the latter case, at any rate, 
there is good reason to believe that it was introduced from 
England. The author also records the occurrence of a ‘‘ plague” 
of black ants of the Tropical American species /ridomyrmex 
humilis near Belfast in 1900. In the second communication 
Signor Berlese describes, with figures, the life-history of a 
number of deleterious insects met with in Sicily. 
THE Maidu stock of north-eastern California contains some 
very primitive tribes, who, in their lack of clan organisation or 
totemic grouping, practical absence of clothing and other 
negative characteristics, recall the Seri Indians of the Gulf of 
California as set forth in the elaborate study by Dr. W. J. 
NO. 1710, VOL. 66] 
NATURE 
[AvucusT 7, 1902 
McGee (Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of American 
Ethnology), Mr. Rowland B. Dixon, when on the Hunting- 
don California Expedition, made a large collection of Maidu 
myths, which he has recently published in the Aud/etzn of the 
American Museum of Natural History (vol. xvii. 1902, p. 33). 
The time has not yet come when these myths can be made to 
yield general conclusions, more field-work being necessary in 
other districts. When such material is available it will prob- 
ably enable us to trace more accurately the lines of migration 
and the mutual relationships of the great mass of stocks scattered 
along the Pacific coast from the Columbia River to Mexico, 
These myths are beast-tales with, or without, a human element. 
The coyote is very prominent; he seems to be generally 
inimical to mankind, and appears often as a buffoon and 
trickster, who comes out of his adventures in a sorry plight. 
GERMAN translations of Faraday’s papers on experimental 
investigations in electricity, from the Phzlosophical Transactions 
of 1835 and 1838, are given in Nos. 126 and 128 of Ostwald’s 
admirable series of scientific classics published by Mr. W. Engel- 
mann, Leipzig. Dr. A. J. v. Oettingen is the editor of the volumes, 
and contributes a few remarks upon them. No. 125 of the same 
series, edited by Dr. F. G. Donnan, contains translations of 
John Mayow’s papers on nitre, combustion and respiration, and 
No. 124 papers on thermodynamics by von Helmholtz, edited 
by Prof. Max Planck. 
THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include two Green Monkeys ( Cercopethecus callitrichus) 
from West Africa, presented by Captain Hugo B. Burnaby ; a 
Common Otter (Zura vulgarts) British, presented by Mr. W. 
Radcliffe Saunders ; a Common Seal (Phoca vitulina) from 
British Seas, presented by Mr. H. C. Rouch; three Mauge’s 
Dasyures (Dasyurus viverrinus) from Australia, presented by 
Mr. Paris K. S. Foot; eight Rufous Tinamous (XAynchotus 
rifescens) from Brazil, presented by Colonel Sir Thomas 
Hungerford Holdich ;a Common Mynah (Acrédotheres tristis) 
from India, presented by Mrs. Hope Robinson ; a Greater Black- 
backed Gull (Zarws marinus) European, presented by Mrs. 
V. H. Veley ; a Yellow-eyed Babbler (Pyctorhzs sinenszs), two 
Striated Babblers (47gya earliz), two Himalayan Black Bulbuls 
(Aypsiptes psaroides), three Rufous-bellied Bulbuls (Aypszftes 
maclelland?), a Verditer Flycatcher (Stoparo/a melanops) from 
British India, presented by Mr. E. W. Harper; a Rough-scaled 
Lizard (Zonurus cordylus), a Spotted Gecko (Pachydactylus 
maculatus) from South Africa, presented by Mr. R. Broome; 
| six Menopomas (CyryJotobranchus alleghaniensis), four Meno- 
branchs (Nectsrus maculatus), a Blue Lizard (Gerrhonotus 
coeruleus), a Spiny-tailed Mastigure (Uvomastix acanthinurus), 
four Horned Lizards (Phiynosoma cornutum) from North 
America, deposited ; a Bennett’s Wallaby (acropus bennett2), 
three Glossy Ibises (Plegadis falcinel/us), three Jameson’s Gulls 
(Larus novae-hollandiae), a Herring Gull (Lars argentatus) bred 
in the Gardens, 
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 
THE SPECTROSCOPIC BINARY 8 CEPHEI.—In No. 5, vol. 
xv. of the Astrophysical Journal, Prof. Frost gives the results 
of his own and Mr. W. S. Adams's estimations of the radial 
velocity of 8 Cephei, reduced from ten spectrograms which 
these observers obtained between December 18, 1901, and May 
24, 1902, with the Bruce spectrograph. 
The results obtained by the two observers agree very well 
and indicate a radial velocity which varies from — 20°3 to + 11°3 
km. It was expected that the period of variation would be 
found to be a long one, but two spectrograms obtained with an 
